by C Brazier
The situation, during these momentous days at Dunkirk, is vividly described by Cyril Cox:
As Wild Swan approached Dunkirk a dense volume of black smoke could be seen ascending into the air. A quick inspection through field glasses revealed an oil installation blazing furiously. West looked at Cox trying in vain to hide the chagrin he felt, but a further investigation led to the discovery of about twenty tanks close to the shore so far safe and sound. This was reassuring, and it was an eager and confident band of sailors and sappers that Wild Swan carried rapidly past a burning oil tanker and the forlorn wrecks of two destroyers and various other craft that surrounded the narrow entrance channel into Dunkirk. As the destroyer berthed along side the shattered quay, the rain came down in torrents and the poor visibility gave promise that the landing would be uneventful – but within five minutes the destroyer’s ack-ack guns roared forth and the sappers had their baptism lying in puddles of water.
West and Banks after explaining their mission were told to find themselves billets in Malo-les-Bains and ‘For Gods sake get these explosives off the quay’. Luck was in for the ground staff of a departing RAF squadron were only too pleased to get rid of their lorries, and with two deserted refugees’ cars, transport was assured. About three hours after landing quite a respectable convoy of two cars and five 3ton lorries moved away from the docks. Not a bad start!
. . . it was a beautiful day with light fleecy clouds, ideal for bombing and soon all three varieties, high, low and dive, were going on fairly continuously. West had a lucky escape when one side of his car was splintered as he got out of the other! About midday, a phenomenon occurred which has since become common place. A lone plane was seen describing a pretty white smoke ring in the sky, and as the men stood watching what he was up to, between fifty and sixty planes dived through and released their load. The air was filled with whistles and crashes, dense clouds of dust floated by, hardly had the first salvo ceased echoing when again the planes came through on their second run up; bricks and shrapnel flew about and the sappers and sailors were smothered in dust and rubble, all with 10 tons of TNT within a few yards – as a matter of fact some of the lads crawled under the laden lorries for cover! When eventually the noise and dust subsided, both sides of the street were quite flat and craters blocked the ends, but the hundred yards of road the party occupied were untouched, and the only casualties were one sailor badly bomb shocked and several cuts and bruises from flying debris.
A strange change came over the town during the day; when the party landed there was no organization or control, traffic went where it liked, crowds of unarmed French soldiers wandered about, officers, wounded or men who had lost their units milled around HQ awaiting instructions, everything was chaotic. Then as the British Army retired towards Dunkirk a few redcaps appeared and order came with them; ack-ack guns and men arrived and raced to take up positions to offer some opposition to the bombers. The ack-ack gunners were magnificent, it was hard to believe that men could become so weary and still keep going, each gun had only one team – sometimes less than one – but still they kept pegging away twenty-four hours a day.
By now the town was ablaze, order was unobtainable and food supplies were running out, streams of ambulances and Red Cross trains came onto the shattered quay, many peppered with machine gun bullets and shrapnel gashes, whilst the VADs and RAMC laboured unceasingly with their merciful tasks, hospital ship after hospital ship being loaded despite machine gunning and bombing and dispatched to safer waters.
Next day it became obvious that the destruction of the oil storage tanks was unnecessary. The leaping flames and great volumes of smoke bore evidence that the enemy’s bombs had found their mark, and Captain West placed his party at the disposal of the Commander RN. That day charges were placed in locks and cranes and by the evening all was ready, and the demolition party retired to a lighthouse, where, wonder of wonders water was obtainable from a well. Thirsts were slaked and empty water bottles refilled – a real piece of good luck.
One fact began to make itself obvious. Before long the quays and docks would become untenable, the Hun had the range only too well and knew just when to release his bombs to hit the target. It must have been about this time that the decision to use the beaches was taken and the necessary preparations set in hand.
Next day the first of the British Army began to arrive, and it was great to see the high spirits of the men tired as they were, and that every man still carried his weapon; there was no demoralisation here, everything seemed orderly and correct, at any rate at that early time.
Later that day Commander Banks decided that owing to the shortage of food and water the RE party should be evacuated right away. He refused to consider their eagerness to remain and assist him and sent them aboard a small drifter already packed solid with men. Hardly was the drifter ready to move away when down came three Messerschmitts and sprayed them with machine gun fire. Slowly the little ship gathered way and left the shattered town of Dunkirk, the flames of a hundred fires leaping skywards with the smoke joining into a black pall overhead. As they steamed towards England the watchers on the ship could see relays of bombers flying in over the smoke clouds and hear the roar of exploding bombs.
As Bert West succinctly put it after they returned:
The position was somewhat ludicrous. We were busy trying to destroy the oil stocks to prevent the Germans getting them. The Germans were bombing them to prevent the French and ourselves getting them and the French Fire Brigades were trying to put out the fires started by the German bombs!
At the same time as the Dunkirk venture another section under Second Lieutenant Arthur Barton was sent to Calais. This was a disappointing job as the party was unable to get anywhere near to the oil tanks because there was heavy fighting already taking place. Fortunately the amount of fuel involved at the tank farm was not great. The party returned safely to Dover.
Another party was sent to Boulogne under Captain Bernard Buxton. When they arrived there was heavy fighting just outside the port. The intelligence was wrong as there were no oil stocks. At this stage the destroyers that came in were only taking off casualties. The party helped to prepare two bridges on the actual approaches to the harbour for demolition. They were continually bombed, shelled and every now and then they came under sniper and machine-gun fire. Sadly Sapper Wells was very badly wounded. The French doctors did what they could for him in the First Aid post on the quay and he was evacuated by destroyer but died on the way to Dover. The party eventually got away on one of the last destroyers able to get into the port.
During the last twenty-four hours of the evacuation at Boulogne no less than fifteen destroyers came and went absolutely packed with troops. On one of these trips a destroyer was lying alongside the quay taking on exhausted soldiers when four German tanks came almost down to the quay. The crews on the destroyer with their 4.7-inch guns were ‘closed up’ for action against air attack. In a moment the ships’ guns engaged the tanks. The first shell missed, the second hit the first tank, ricocheted off, hitting the second tank and both were knocked out. The third shell hit the third tank fair and square and blew it to pieces and the fourth tank beat it.
This operation at Boulogne was officially described as abortive but Bernard Buxton summed it up well:
The blokes were all grand, all nine of them, and at least they had swapped shots with Jerry at one hundred and fifty yards range and may have killed some – who knows?’
Chapter Eight
CHERBOURG AND ST MALO
The collapse of French resistance meant that XD operations, as these demolition operations were officially known, were no longer pre-planned but being mounted on an ad hoc basis. The four parties had returned from their operations at Dunkirk, Calais and Boulogne, before we got back from France. The operations had been abortive but only either because oil was non-existent or already destroyed by enemy action. The situation they found was well described by Cyril Cox, who was just back from Dunkirk, in his report:
We arrived in Milton barracks with our natural elation clouded by the loss of one of our number, but at least confident of a warm welcome from the comrades we had left behind. Like a cold douche came reality, the bleak empty barracks with only a few familiar faces, cooks, waiters, telephonists and the like, the remainder of the unit had departed for the Havre-Rouen area. A strange Colonel sat in OC Troops Office and grudgingly granted each man twenty fours leave – most of it utilized to make up arrears of sleep – then set them to work on road blocks, sweeping the barracks, cleaning latrines and similar routine jobs. Captain West became Officer I/C road blocks. Captain Buxton accommodation Officer, Second Lieutenant Barton a sort of stores clerk and myself, a glorified office boy entitled Assistant Adjutant to OC Troops – a post which entailed sitting in the gloomy twilight of OC Troops office for about twelve hours each day. The comparison was too great for immediate adjustment of the human mind from the tense excitement of those hours under enemy fire to the quiet monotonous existence in barracks, and tempers became frayed, the men longed for a further smack at the common enemy, us two subalterns chaffed at the futility of our present occupation, and confided to each other our intense desire to escape from the soul destroying deadness, but the time passed slowly by and there seemed no prospect of relief.
At about 1.00 p.m. on Sunday, 6 June, I was sitting in the OC Troops Office signing ‘for Adjutant’, when the phone rang and a voice asked for Captain West saying ‘Major Bourne here’. At the sound of that magic name I pricked up my ears and explained that Captain West was out but that I was the senior Kent Fortress officer in the barracks. ‘Tell Captain West I want to know how many special parties he can form, and that I shall want about five parties at short notice’.
Major Bourne was known to be a staff officer in Military Operations at the War Office so there was much excitement among all ranks at the prospect of release from this humdrum existence and the chance to get involved in further operations.
Oil storage installations at Caen, Cherbourg and St Malo were the objectives this time. One difficulty was that Caen was inland and the nearest port was Cherbourg eighty miles away. For this reason West decided to send a third officer to Cherbourg. The parties for Cherbourg and Caen were commanded by Lieutenant Cox with Second Lieutenants Barton and Birley, the latter having been specially posted in from Chatham at short notice. When they arrived at Portsmouth they were immediately embarked on HMS Alresford, a roomy ship which had been used previously as a navigation school. An hour later a naval demolition party arrived and both parties were put under command of Lieutenant Commander Grindle. They immediately put to sea and the Navy with their usual hospitality supplied the men with cocoa and bread and cheese and the officers enjoyed a meal in the wardroom. Everybody then turned in to get what sleep they could.
At 4.00 a.m. they were roused and the Navy again turned up trumps and gave them an excellent breakfast of bacon and eggs. An hour later they berthed alongside the Gare Maritime in Cherbourg. Grindle and Cox went to the British HQ that was close by in the local casino. Their arrival was completely unexpected and at first they were refused any sort of cooperation. After some time a sleepy naval liaison officer and an army staff officer were dug out of bed and it was learnt that the entire staff moved out to a château at night to avoid the routine bombing of the harbour. Cox managed, after much wrangling, to extract two 30cwt lorries and a four-seater car from them and also got reluctant permission to use the army huts near the harbour as billets for both parties. The news that the huts had been evacuated owing to the severity of the bombing attacks worried the chaps not at all! The OC of a local transit camp undertook to keep the men supplied with food and also lent them two cooks to prepare it.
When Grindle and Cox went to the local French naval authorities to discuss arrangements for the demolition of the oil, it was the usual story: ‘It was absurd. The Germans could never advance so far, ridiculous, mad Englishmen!’ It was evident that relations with the French had completely broken down. Grindle also complained that it was impossible to find who was in charge in the army; it appeared to be the most senior officer present but as he changed every few hours it made it very difficult to get a decision.
After a long argument Cox, with one party, was allowed to proceed to Ouistreham which was about eight miles south of Caen on the coast. Barton’s party loaded their stores onto a lorry, with Cox and Barton in the car and proceeded to Caen. They were surprised at first to see signs saying ‘Rue Bombe’ but they realized after a mile or two it was merely to indicate a rough surface! The lorry broke down and after repairing it they eventually reached Caen where Barton was put in the hands of a French naval liaison officer and Cox returned by car to Cherbourg. There he found very little progress had been made in persuading the French to cooperate. Surprisingly Arthur Barton rang up to say that he had been allowed to destroy the oil stocks at Ouistreham but as his lorry was on its last legs, wanted another be sent for them. As Cox was achieving very little at Cherbourg he decided to go himself with a car, a lorry and a dispatch rider. Unfortunately the roads were being strafed and he first lost the motor cycle with a bullet through the engine, then the lorry was shot up through the back axle and so they were forced to return when only about three miles from Caen. It subsequently transpired that the Germans were already in Caen. Cox telephoned Barton at Ouistreham through the Caen exchange, telling him to get back as best he could using country roads. They managed to patch up their broken down lorry and, by hugging back roads, reached Cherbourg safely some three hours later.
All the fuel stored at Cherbourg was bunker oil and Cox realized that it would be virtually impossible to destroy quickly as the tanks were all underground and no oxygen would be available. However they were unable even to try as the French naval guards prevented their entry to the site right to the end.
Commander Grindle then instructed Cox to join in the port demolitions which they did, with relish. Cranes were toppled over into the dock, ships were sunk and one outstanding feature was the felling of a pair of 250-ton sheer legs which took a 2,000-ton coaster to the bottom with them. At the last moment they all ran onto HM destroyer Sabre which was moored stern on to the quay and as the last man jumped on, it took off like a scalded cat.
The section bound for St Malo was under the command of Second Lieutenant Ashwell. When they arrived at Portsmouth they embarked on HMS Wild Swan. Sapper Shelton gives an apt description:
On arrival at Portsmouth we were greeted with some very choice language from the naval ratings to go on the job with us. They had been with us on other raids and that accounted for their greeting!
After a meal, they set sail and stopped briefly at Jersey in the Channel Islands where some officers went ashore before pushing on to St Malo, where they disembarked. Sapper Shelton takes up the story again:
After disembarking we made our way to the casino, where we were to be billeted during our stay. We were put in the picture by Lieutenant Ashwell, after which we took up positions on road blocks. At that time troops were marching back from Rennes and embarking for England. We saw the last troops go and the last boat. Our worry was how we were to get out when our job was completed. After several days we were told by Lieutenant Ashwell that the Germans were at Rennes and it was time to get cracking. Our work was to be a tank farm, and very awkward it proved, owing to the fact that in front of the storage tanks were a row of houses.
After smashing the valves and opening the cocks to flood all round the tanks, and with all our men accounted for, Lieutenant Ashwell fired his Very pistol to complete the job. Another successful mission.
We made for the harbour and to our surprise and relief found about six motor boats waiting for us. We afterwards found out that the arrangements had been made by those officers who went ashore at Jersey for a group of very brave volunteers to bring us out of St Malo. We were very relieved to be out of France.
After a very rough trip we arrived at St Helier, all glad to be on dry land once more. We spent
two days in St Helier and enjoyed a good rest and we then received orders to move on as the Germans had occupied St Malo. We left St Helier on the only boat available, the SS Rye, which was loaded with potatoes, and after a hectic voyage we landed at Weymouth. Another exercise successfully completed.
We owe our sincere thanks to the brave men of St Helier.
Chapter Nine
ROBINSON CRUSOE – BREST
On 16 June while we were still away on the Seine, West, who was commanding the rear party at Gravesend, was rung by Military Operations at the War Office to say that the situation in France was deteriorating so fast and that more demolition teams were needed. As only Bert West and Bernard Buxton were in barracks with the residue of the unit of half a dozen sappers, West said,
‘Buxton and I will have to go’. But wisely West was ordered to stay at Gravesend to keep continuity. It was explained to the War Office that Don Terry’s party from the Seine who, you will remember had been evacuated earlier by destroyer to England, were on leave. West said that he should be able to raise the three officers and thirty men required by the morning. This was only possible as being a Territorial unit nearly all the men lived in Northfleet and Gravesend. The six sappers who were in barracks spent the evening going round the two towns knocking up their mates for another ‘party’.
The next morning as requested, Buxton reported to the War Office for instructions while West took all the rest of the party to Waterloo Station, as had been ordered the previous evening, complete with their usual arms, preserved rations, morphine tablets and other miscellaneous impedimenta by now commonplace to these jobs as section stores. Here they boarded the train to Plymouth and a very disappointed West waved them off and returned to Gravesend where he and an elderly batman were all that was left in the unit lines. There were three sections of ten men each, with Buxton, Terry and Second Lieutenant Owens as the three officers.